Virginia Beach Vice Mayor Louis R. Jones Joins Kickoff Event

Virginia Beach, Va. – April 13, 2006 – Virginia Beach Vice Mayor Louis R. Jones joined Sentara Bayside Hospital Administrator Larry DePriest and the Bayside leadership team for the kickoff of a new internal program aimed at keeping employees engaged in patient safety efforts at the hospital.  The program is called, “Building a Better Environment for Safety,” and encompasses the existing, award-winning Sentara patient safety initiative.

All of Sentara’s patient care facilities, including Sentara Bayside Hospital, have made dramatic reductions in the events that could cause harm to patients by creating a “Culture of Safety.” An essential part of that culture is imbedding the daily use of safe practices by all employees. The Culture of Safety initiative employs “Behavior Based Expectations (BBEs)” – behaviors that each employee uses to prevent medical errors, patient injuries and workplace accidents.

“The safety team at Sentara Bayside Hospital came up with the idea to try to bring an element of fun to the serious matter of patient safety as a means of engaging every single one of our employees,” explained DePriest. “A play on the BBE acronym was the brainchild of our quality improvement coordinator, Tosha Sampson. She turned the acronym into ‘Building a Better Environment for Safety,’ so we’ve embraced the construction concept,” DePriest said.

The safety team decided to create a mock cardboard “building” which will be displayed in the hospital lobby.  Each brick of the building will hold the signature of an employee who has signed on with their pledge of doing their part to ensure patient safety.

Vice Mayor Jones recognized Sampson for her creativity, and Sentara Bayside for the improvements made in patient safety. He lent his support by adding the first signed brick to the project. 

The BBE concept came from the nuclear power industry.  Sentara launched its Culture of Safety initiative by retaining consultants who have developed safety improvements in several high-risk industries. With their guidance, Sentara created a collaborative process with physicians and hospital staff to implement processes to improve patient safety. Sentara’s success with its Culture of Safety initiative was recognized with the 2005 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality award from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Quality Forum. Sentara received the award for ‘Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a Local or Organizational Level.’

Sentara Healthcare is a premier not-for-profit health care provider in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Optima Health is a service of Sentara Healthcare. For additional information on Sentara visit www.sentara.com.